Hands-on Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
- 2 20 oz bags frozen baby broccoli
- 1 10 oz can cream of chicken soup
- ½ c real mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip)
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1½ c grated cheddar cheese
- 1 Tbsp dehydrated minced onion
Topping:
- 16-18 crushed Ritz crackers
- ¼ c butter, melted
- Cook broccoli and cut into bite-size pieces. Place in greased 2 qt casserole. Mix remaining ingredients for casserole (not topping) and pour over broccoli. Mix well.
- Mix cracker crumbs with melted butter. Sprinkle over broccoli mix. May be refrigerated up to 24 hours at this point. Bake in preheated 350ºF oven for 35-45 minutes (longer if chilled) until hot until, bubbly and crust browns.
This is one of my favorite recipes to make for the holidays. And yes, I’m just now getting around to posting recipes I made for the holidays at the end of last year. No matter though. This recipe can be made at any time of the year and really should be made more often than at holidays because it is so easy and good.
When I make this recipe I am and will be forever reminded of my mom. This is a recipe that she made for holidays when I was younger. And when I asked for recipes from her to begin building my own collection this was one of the first among them.
As well as it should be. This isn’t her original recipe for broccoli casserole. I believe the original not only called for cream of mushroom soup, but also fresh onion. Now I’m pretty sure I not only ate but enjoyed the recipe how it was originally made. But at some point the picky eater in me came shining through and I could no longer stand it especially knowing there were mushrooms in it. My mom was very accommodating when she thought to swap the mushroom soup for the chicken and tone down the onion flavor with dehydrated onion instead.
I have since further tweaked this recipe with the help of my husband, too. Being the topping lovers that we are, we now double the topping ingredients (32-36 crackers and ½ c butter). I do think though that that will be the last of the transformations this recipe will see as it is delicious. I don’t see how it could get any better.
Now the trick to this recipe is getting broccoli just right. First, be sure to use the baby broccoli as called for. Then when you cook it, the broccoli should be soft but not mushy. There is a fine line here. The time before, the broccoli wasn’t cooked enough and some pieces would stab you in the mouth. This time I cooked it too long and it was too mushy. At least it wasn’t stabbing anyone but it didn’t taste as good as it could have. So keep an eye on that and frequently test it with a fork after it’s been cooking for a good bit.
The thing I love about my current go-to holiday recipes is that they are all easy and cook at the same temperature for about the same time. I can have 2-3 dishes in the oven at once and they’ll all be ready together. What I love even more about this recipe is that it can be made ahead of time. It’s one thing for them all to cook nicely together but to have to try and whip them all up at the same time, no matter how easy they are on their own, is still challenging and time consuming. This dish can be made the night before and refrigerated. And yes, it is correct that you put the entire dish together (topping and all) before refrigerating it.
Do you have a favorite holiday dish that has evolved over generations?